NIV 1 Chronicles 4:10 Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain. And God granted his request.

This morning my study took me to 1 Chronicles 4 and there I found the prayer of Jabez amongst the genealogies. I read Matthew Henry’s commentary on it, and he took special note that Jabez’s mother named him pain, and then I noticed that in the NIV translation his prayer is to be free from pain translated evil in the King James Version. I have found in past study that when you find words translated different ways many times you’ll find a deep concept worth chewing on. The word in question in Hebrew is ra` definition: bad, unpleasant, evil (giving pain, unhappiness, misery).

As God worked with me on that, (and He still is), I thought of the many times my sin has grieved God. It really helps me to understand the prayer, and I lift up my own plea, “God guide me in a right path that I wouldn’t sin and cause You pain.  As a father I understand how some times my kids are a pain, but more than that how it pains me to see them take the bait of sin and knowing the consequences in my heart causes me great pain. Again I feel a very small taste of God’s pain and worship knowing He loves me and my kids more than I could ever fathom and if I feel that kind of pain when my kids sin, oh God, help me to stay focused on Jesus that I may not cause You that pain and that I may guide my family to do the same.

I have never read the book The Prayer of Jabez, perhaps it says all that, but I sure enjoyed discovering it for myself. That’s why I so dearly love my daily time with the Lord. Treat yourself to that time tomorrow it’s sooooo worth it.  

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